Tag: why do the jews not believe in Isa

In our last articles we have seen how the prophets gave signs predicting the name of the Masih (the prediction was Jesus) and predicting the time of his coming. These are amazingly specific prophecies, recorded and set in writing hundreds of years before the coming of Jesus (Is al Masih – PBUH) and they correctly predicted him. These prophecies were written down, and are still there(!), in the Jewish scriptures – not in the Injil or the Qur’an. The question then arises as to why the Jewish people did not and still (mostly) do not accept Jesus as Christ (the Masih) since this is written in their book.

Before we look at this question, I should clarify that asking the question in the way that I did is not quite accurate. Many Jews in the lifetime of Jesus (Isa – PBUH) did accept him as the Masih. And today there are also many who accept him as the Masih. But the fact remains, as a nation, they did not accept him. So why?

Why do the Jews not accept Isa (PBUH) as the Masih?

The Gospel of Matthew (Injil) records an encounter between Isa (PBUH) and the Jewish religious teachers (called Pharisees and Sadducees – they had a similar role as imams have today). They had posed a trick question to him and here is Jesus reply:

Jesus replied, “You are in error because you do not know the Scriptures or the power of God. (Matthew 22:29)

This exchange gives us an important clue. Though these were leaders who taught the Taurat and Zabur to the people, Jesus accused them of not knowing the scriptures and not knowing the power of God. What did he mean by this? How could the experts not ‘know the scriptures’?

The Jews did not know ALL the scriptures

When you study what the leaders talked about and referenced in the Taurat and Zabur you will notice that they were very aware of only certain prophecies – and not other ones. So we saw, for example, in the Sign of the Virgin’s Son, that the experts knew the prophecy that the Masih would come from Bethlehem. Here is the verse that the experts in the Law quoted to King Herod at the birth of Isa to show where the Masih was to be born:

“But you, Bethlehem Ephrathah,

though you are small among the clans of Judah,

out of you will come for me

one who will be ruler over Israel,

whose origins are from of old,

from ancient times.” (Micah 5:2)

You will see that they knew the verse that referenced the Christ (= Masih – see here for why these terms are the same) and that this verse refers to him as the ‘ruler’. Another passage, well-known to the Jewish experts, was Psalm 2, inspired by Dawood (PBUH) which first introduced the title ‘Christ’ and which said that the ‘Christ’ would be ‘installed as King in Zion” (= Jerusalem or Al Quds) as we see in the passage.

The kings of the earth take their stand … against the LORD and against his Masih … The One enthroned in heaven laughs; the Lord scoffs at them… saying, “I have installed my King on Zion, my holy hill … (Psalm 2 of Zabur)

The Jewish teachers were also well aware of the following passages from Zabur

O Lord, … For the sake of Dawud your servant, do not reject your Masih. The Lord swore an oath to Dawud, a sure oath that he will not revoke: “One of your own descendants I will place on your throne— … “Here I will make a horn grow for Dawud and set up a lamp for my Masih. (Psalm 132:10-18 of Zabur)

The Jews did not know the power of God by limiting it by their logic

So they knew certain passages, all of which pointed in one direction – that the Masih would rule with power. Given that in the time of Isa (Jesus – PBUH) the Jews lived under Roman occupation in the land of Israel (see here for history of Jews) this was the only kind of Masih that they wanted. They wanted a Masih that would come with power and repel the hated Romans and set up the powerful Kingdom that King Dawud had established 1000 years before (see here for background to King Dawud). This yearning to have a Masih shaped from their own desires rather than from the plan of Allah kept them from studying all their scriptures.

Then they used their human reason to limit the power of God in their thinking. The prophecies said that the Masih would rule in Jerusalem. Jesus did not rule with power from Jerusalem. So he could not be the Masih! It was simple logic. They limited the power of God by confining Him to their linear and human logic.

The Jews to this day largely do not know the prophecies of Zabur. Though it is in their book, called the Tanakh (=Taurat + Zabur) but if they read anything they just read the Taurat. They are ignoring God’s commands to know ALL the scriptures and are therefore ignorant of the other prophecies, and by limiting God with their human logic, they reason that since the Masih is to rule, and Isa did not rule, he cannot be the Masih. End of story! No need to investigate the question further! To this day most Jews do not look further into the issue.

So you are to know and discern that from the issuing of a decree to restore and rebuild Jerusalem until Messiah (or Anointed One) the Prince there will be seven weeks and sixty-two weeks; it will be built again, with plaza and moat, even in times of distress. Then after the sixty-two weeks the Messiah will be cut off and have nothing, and the people of the prince who is to come will destroy the city and the sanctuary. And its end will come with a flood; even to the end there will be war; desolations are determined. (Daniel 9:25-26)

Notice what Daniel says will happen to the Masih when he arrives. Does Daniel predict that the Masih will rule? That he will occupy the throne of his ancestor Dawud and destroy the occupying Roman power? No! In fact it says, quite clearly, that the Masih will be ‘cut off and will have nothing’. Then it says that foreign people will destroy the sanctuary (the Jewish Temple) and the city (Jerusalem) and that it would become desolate. If you look at the history of the Israelites you will see that this indeed happened. Forty years after the passing of Jesus the Romans came and burned down the Temple, destroyed Jerusalem and sent the Jews into worldwide exile so that they were driven from the land. Events happened in 70 AD exactly as prophesied by Daniel around 537 BC, and predicted previously by the Prophet Musa (PBUH) in the Curses.

So Daniel predicted the Masih was not going to rule! Instead he would be ‘cut off and have nothing’. The Jewish leaders missed this because they did not ‘know the scriptures’. But this raises another problem. Is there not a contradiction between the prophecy of Daniel (‘cut off’) and those that the Jews were familiar with (the Masih would rule). After all, if all the prophets had messages from Allah, all of them would have to come true as specified by Musa (PBUH) in the Taurat. How could it be possible that the Masih would be cut off AND that he would rule? It seemed that their human logic had outsmarted the ‘power of God’.

Contradiction between ‘Rule’ and ‘Cut off’ explained

But of course their logic was not stronger than the power of God. They were simply, as we humans do, not recognizing an assumption they were making. They assumed that the Masih was to come only once. If that were the case then there would indeed be a contradiction between the rule of the Masih and his being ‘cut off’. So they limited the power of God in their minds because of their logic, but in the end it was their logic that was faulty. The Masih was to come two times. In the first coming he would fulfill the ‘cut off and have nothing’ prophecies and only in the second coming would he fulfill the ‘ruling’ prophecies. From that perspective the ‘contradiction’ is easily resolved.

Do we also miss ALL the scriptures and limit the power of God?

But what did it mean that the Masih would be ‘cut off and have nothing’? We will look at this question soon But for now perhaps it would be more useful to reflect on how the Jews missed the signs. We have already seen two reasons why the Jews did not see the signs of the Masih. There is also a third reason, which is recorded for us in the Gospel of John (Injil) in another exchange between Jesus (Isa – pbuh) and the religious leaders where he says to them.

You study the Scriptures diligently because you think that in them you have eternal life. These are the very Scriptures that testify about me, yet you refuse to come to me to have life…. How can you believe since you accept glory from one another but do not seek the glory that comes from the only God? (John 5: 39-44)

In other words, the third reason that the Jews missed the signs of the Masih was because they simply ‘refused’ to accept them because they were more interested in winning the approval of each other rather than approval from God!

The Jews are not more misguided and wrong-headed than other people. Yet it is easy for us to sit in judgment over them for missing the signs that Jesus was the Masih. But before we point our fingers at them perhaps we should look at ourselves. Can we honestly say that we know ‘all the scriptures’? Do we not, like the Jews, simply look at the scriptures that we like, are comfortable with, and understand? And do we not often use our human logic to limit the power of God in our minds? Or do we even sometimes refuse to accept the scriptures because we are concerned about what others think more than what God has said?

The manner in which the Jews missed the signs should be a warning to us. We dare not limit ourselves to only the scriptures that we are familiar with and that we happen to like. We dare not limit the power of God by our human logic. And we dare not refuse to accept what the scriptures teach. Armed with these warnings from how the Jews missed the signs of the coming Masih we now turn to understand the coming of a key person – The Servant.